New Face of Retirement: Law Changes in Europe; "Please don't go"

WSJ reports (link may require fee) of changing European employment laws in response to the aging European workforce.

A British law that took effect last week bans workplace age discrimination and bars companies from setting retirement ages below 65. (As in the U.S., the law excludes some professions.) British employers will also be required to consider employee requests to stay on past 65 and must provide them with six months' notice of their retirement date.

In France, CEO retirement age falls to corporate bylaws. Both state and private employees are eligible to retire at 60, but must have worked 40 years to receive a pension from the state. Germany's corporate-governance code recommends boards have a retirement policy but doesn't prescribe the age. The government plans to gradually raise the retirement age for typical workers to 67 from 65.

"We're moving away from an environment of stereotypical prejudices about the capabilities of older executives, and the irrational belief that younger executives are more likely to have fresh ideas," says James Davies, joint head of employment and incentives at London law firm Lewis Silkin. "We're losing huge amounts of experience of these people being forced out for no reason other than age."

While the article was focused on corporate CEOs, it portends a shifting attitude among both workers and businesses regarding the age at which workers should be moving on. With Europe's aging population it is more or less going to be necessary for companies to retain seasoned workers (and not just in management ranks). Furthermore, with uncertainty involving the generous social benefits that European workers have generally been able to enjoy, they too (like their American counterparts) may have economic incentives to continue working in some fashion past the "normal" age of retirement.

Would you want to retire at 60? How about if you enjoyed your job and were planning on living another 30-40 years, do you still want to retire?